Transferring my Win 7 installation to an SSD in a dual-boot system

Hello!

I've got a brand new SSD waiting for me at the post office, and what I need to do is the process described in this helpful tutorial SSD - Install and Transfer the Operating System -- but my specific situation is that I've got a dual-boot system:

There's drive C with Windows 7 64-bit,
drive D for general storage,
and drive E housing Windows Vista 32-bit, into which I sometimes boot for running incompatible software.

When I boot into Vista, drives C and E swich places in the nomenclature (E becomes C in Vista and vice versa).

There's also a special guest, drive B which is my big external HDD, powered only when I back up or restore my stuff.

So here's my current plan.

1) I back up everything using my backup software, which is Paragon Backup & Recovery 2010 Free Advanced.

2) Using the backup image of C, I copy my C drive (or most of it) over to the SSD (after having prepared it as per the instructions in the tutorial).

3) Not 100% sure what happens next. I have to edit the drive letters and boot settings (using EasyBCD, perhaps?) so that the SSD takes the place of drive C in the drive setup and in the windows boot manager. Ideally, the dual-boot with Vista remains intact and everything remains seemingly the same, the C drive just housed in a different piece of hardware, and the old hdd (now drive X or whatever) becoming a (second) generic storage drive.

I don't feel like doing this trial-and-error just on my own. Any tips? What do you think about this project? Should I just uninstall Win7 and reinstall it from scratch onto the SSD? I'd hate to do that, because then I have to reinstall a lot of stuff and configure my system back to how I like it.

Many thanks!

I would clone the HD to SSD using free Acronis premium cloning/imaging program which comes free with any WD or Seagate drive in the mix.

Otherwise use free Macrium Reflect which includes cloning in the latest version.

After cloning unplug the source HD. If Win7 fails to boot, boot into the Win7 DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair 3 Separate Times after marking it Active and setting it first HD to boot in BIOS setup.

Once it starts, try booting Vista using the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key wihch is the preferred method of Dual Booting with separate HDs because it keeps them independent. If it fails to boot either add it from Win7 using EasyBCD 2.02, or unplug Win7 HD to mark Vista Active then run Vista Startup Repair 3 times to make it's bootmanager also independent and bootable via BIOS.

Can you post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Mgmt drive map with listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu. We can advise you better.

gregrocker said:

Can you post back a screenshot of your maximized Disk Mgmt drive map with listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu. We can advise you better.

Not sure what you mean by drive map with listings, this is my Disk Management after installing the SSD and before initializing it:



Obviously there's still too much data on C at this point for it to fit on the SSD. I'll make some room today and back up my stuff.

whs said:

Your plan looks good exccept for the bootmgr in the 100MB system partition. that you have to fix (which might be a bit of a pain)

So this is something that will appear once I prepare the SSD? What is it and why will I have to fix it?

This is my Disk Management after initializing the SSD. I looked in Diskpart as well, no sign of a 100MB partition anywhere. I guess that means I don't have to worry about that?

If D is your storage drive it should not be marked Active. I would mark it Inactive now: Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums.

I'd also have my SSD in DISK0 position if possible, which can be done by swapping cables if possible.

When installing, imaging or cloning to the SSD, I would unplug all other HD's except the external holding the image or the source if cloning. Make sure after install/cloning/imaging the Win7 on the SSD is marked System Active and set first HD to boot in BIOS setup.

Then when you plug back in the other HD's, boot the other OS's using the one-time BIOS Boot Menu key.

You'll need a separate license for Win7 on the SSD if you don't delete Win7 on the HD. If you decide to do this, you'll need to recover the System Active boot files into Vista first so it will boot on its own and not using the System boot files on C as it does now.

To do this, mark Vista Active, unplug all other HD's, boot into Vista Install DVD Repair console or Repair CD to run Startup Repair up to 3 separate times with reboots until Vista starts on its own.

Then boot the preferred OS by setting it first to boot in BIOS, boot the other OS HD using BIOS one-time Boot Menu key at boot. This keeps the HD's independent to come and go as you please instead of interlocking them with a Window-managed Dual Boot.

Only the OS SSD/HD's should be marked Active. To boot them independently as suggested they must also each hold the System flag.

gregrocker said:

I'd also have my SSD in DISK0 position if possible, which can be done by swapping cables if possible.

Is it important to have your main OS in DISK0? Why?

Thank you both for the protips, it is much appreciated :-----)

This is what I'm thinking of trying out tomorrow:

First I'll unplug everything but the CD drive, the SSD, and the external backup drive. I will then install a fresh Windows 7. Then I'll boot into the backup disc, select some directories from the backup image like Windows, Program Files etc. and see if I can just overwrite the ones on the SSD, boot Windows and ... if it doesn't work, I'll think of something else.

Vista probably won't boot after this, hopefully I can use EasyBCD or something to fix this.

One other question came to mind; Will I be able to change the files on the HDDs after installing the "new" Windows 7 on the SSD, eg. delete the other Windows 7? Will the file system let me, or will it give some sort of access denied error because I don't have the permissions or something?

The reason for having OS in Disk0 is because if you install, reintsall or repair Win7 and it isn't in the first hD slot, any data partition which precedes it in order that is accidentally marked Active will have the System boot files mistakenly written to it.

We have to fix this a lot here. So, we warn.

I like your idea to clean reinstall, but I would not copy in Windows or Program Files as this is fraught with potential problems. But I'm glad you asked, if that's what you're doing.

Your best of all choices is to clean reinstall adapting these tips to get a perfect reinstall: Reinstalling Windows 7

Next would be to clone over Win7 with the System MBR and Active flag included. If it still doesn't start follow the repair tips I gave earlier.

The best overall way to delete an OS after it's no longer needed is from Disk Mgmt after marking it Inactive: Partition - Mark as Inactive - Windows 7 Forums. You can also use the Diskpart "Delete Partition Override" command on the partition, or if you want to clean the entire HD use Diskpart "Clean" command which has the benefit of cleaning the boot sector of potential problem corruption.

I gave you the steps in my previous post to boot Vista or Win7 if they won't boot.